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On Nov. 24, 1784, Zachary Taylor, the country's 12th...

On Nov. 24, 1784, Zachary Taylor, the country's 12th president, was born in Orange County, Va.

In 1859 English naturalist Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species," explaining his theory of evolution through natural selection.

In 1874 barbed wire was patented by Joseph Glidden of De Kalb.

In 1925 conservative commentator William F. Buckley was born in New York.

In 1936 a Chicago, North Shore & Milwaukee train rammed an elevated train at the Granville Avenue station, killing 10 people and injuring 234.

In 1947 a group of writers, producers and directors, known later as "the Hollywood 10," was cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer a committee's questions about alleged communist influence in the film industry.

In 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald was shot to death at close range by Jack Ruby as Oswald was being led from a Dallas police station where he was questioned in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

In 1969 the United States and the Soviet Union signed a nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Also in 1969 the Apollo 12 craft splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean with three astronauts after their space mission.

In 1971 a man who identified himself as "D.B. Cooper" hijacked a Northwest Airlines 727 and parachuted into a thunderstorm near Woodland, Wash., with $200,000 in ransom money, all $20 bills. (He never was seen again.)

In 1976 George Bush announced his resignation as head of the CIA.

In 1977 an archeologist said a tomb uncovered near Salonika, Greece, was that of King Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great.

In 1983, in response to potential terrorist attacks, dump trucks loaded with sand appeared outside many White House gates. Cars and trucks were also used to block entrances at the State Department.

In 1987 Washington and Moscow agreed to scrap shorter- and medium-range missiles. It was the first superpower treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons.

In 1993 Congress passed the Brady Bill, aimed at controlling handguns. Also in 1993 Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both 11, were convicted of murdering 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool, England. (Both would be sentenced to indefinite detention.)